How Reliable are Colored Flutes?

ColoredFlutes

How Reliable are They?

I often receive inquiries like this from visitors to my site:

“My daughter would love a coloured flute for school band but all the report I have seen say the are junk and will break easy. And I will spend more time fixing them then playing it. My question is do you have many return due to this or are they pretty reliable?”

Here’s my reply:That’s a great question Michelle.As a flute teacher, I hire and sell my Masterpiece brand flutes to my students in Australia. I also supply them all over the world to people who appreciate the joy and delight that a beautifully colored instrument can bring to the art of music.I wish I could tell you that every colored flute I supply is 100% reliable, will respond flawlessly for years, even with daily multi-hour practice sessions, and will never more the the most minor servicing, which will cost less than $10.Sometimes, this is true.

I have taught students who bought colored flutes from me at the beginning of their tuition. Over the course of several years I've witnessed their flutes being transported to class, assembled, played, cleaned, disassembled and returned to its case, taken away from the class, and shown off to their friends in the playground. After all this, the flute is still as responsive as the day it was new, without so much as a tweak.In a few extreme cases I've even seen astounding reliability from Masterpiece flutes that have been regularly abused by dropping, knocking against hard objects, put away dirty, and losing the crown from the head joint.

About 10% of my Masterpiece flutes are as impressive as this. Another 70% of flutes grow old gracefully. They provide good value in terms of the money spent versus the quality of sound they produce and the opportunity they yield for a student to have a joyful experience learning to play on an "awesome" instrument.

Occasionally, I need to make a small adjustment, which involves tightening a tiny screw about 10 degrees.Although the adjustment is very simple to make, it's unlikely that you would be able to do it yourself,despite the inclusion of a screwdriver with your flute purchase.

At this stage you would contact me, whereupon I would advise you to phone a local instrument repair shop to ask about their attitude towards cheap colored flutes that have been bought online. It's important to mention that you only need an adjustment, not a service, because servicing a flute involves taking it apart and cleaning it, among other things, and costs around $150.

Some repairers sneer at colored flutes, perhaps because the flute was not bought from them, or maybe because they value reliability above appearance and price. If you find a friendly repairer, your 12 month warranty covers the cost of repairs up to $US25. If you don't find a repairer with a suitable attitude then you can return the flute to me, and I will repair it, or replace it if a repair is uneconomical.Admittedly, if you were playing a brand new Yamaha 221 flute, (the benchmark by which I assess the value of all other flutes) it’s unlikely that any adjustments would be necessary.But, the Yamaha model 221, which is the cheapest in the range, does not come in any color except silver, AND it costs $700 – more than 3 times as much as my Masterpiece brand.

You can even find cheaper colored flutes than the ones I sell, but I cannot recommend them because I have no control or faith in the quality.When I first started offering colored flutes I bought flutes from several different suppliers. Some of them sent me flutes that were so badly made they were unplayable. I don’t buy from those factories anymore. Some of my competitors must be buying from them because those factories are still in business.

Now that I have found a reliable supplier I still check every flute to make sure it is playable.

How to Attract More Students to Your Lessons

The best way to attract more students to your lessons is to make a visit to a classroom. With minimal preparation, meaning contacting the classroom teacher and obtaining their permission to make a presentation to the class, you can show up with your flute and play a few pieces that you think the kids will like. After your performance you can invite the class to ask you questions.

The usual questions I get range from:

Write Music with your Mouse – Free Music Notation Software

Here’s a handy program for writing music with your mouse.

Unfortunately for Mac users, it's only for Windows.

It was written for Windows XP (those were the days), and I don't know if it will work on subsequent versions of Windows, but it's well worth trying because it's such a cool program.

Named Finale Notepad, it was published by Coda Music in 2001, and distributed free, but they’ve since discontinued it.

Jingle Bells for the Flute

When Christmas approaches, flute teachers often have the opportunity to combine their students into an ensemble that will perform at a school concert.

The ideal repertoire for this occasion contains Christmas carols, and my students are usually very eager to participate.

Because they are so motivated at this time, they will often practise much more enthusiastically in order to achieve mastery over the tunes, even if it means that they will need to navigate a steep learning curve.

The Sweetness of Innocent Gratitude

The Music Teacher’s Checklist

It can be very frustrating to be halfway into a lesson and discover that a vital piece of equipment is missing, preventing you from moving smoothly through your plan.

For example, you have positioned your CD player neatly on a table, where it will be audible to all your students, and conveniently within reach of your favourite hand. Then you discover that the lead that connects the CD player to your power supply is mysteriously not there.